Being able to trust can create a powerful foundation for reframing how we see the world and taking more purposeful actions in our lives, discovers Jini Reddy at the Findhorn New Story Summit

Is trust the secret ingredient in the recipe for creating a brave new world?

As I travelled to the Findhorn Foundation, a spiritual community, learning centre and ecovillage in Scotland, I chewed this over. I was attending the New Story Summit, a week-long global gathering aimed at creating new narratives around ecology, social justice and the economy.

The question seemed apt: after all, the Findhorn Foundation community owes its existence to acts of radical trust. In the sixties, its founders faithfully followed their intuition – the ‘still, small voice within’ as one of the trio, Eileen Caddy called it. Via guidance received in this way barren soil was miraculously transformed into a wonderland of garden produce: flowers, plants, herbs and vegetables, including 40-pound cabbages that stunned horticultural experts (well-documented at the time). A community based on a culture of service and deep listening grew from this. Trust led to a new model, hitherto unthinkable.

Yet, it’s an ancient and sacrosanct practice within indigenous cultures. “For many sustainable cultures there’s a principle of reciprocity and right relations. This often translates as ‘never take more than you can use, never harvest more from this Mother Earth for your life needs than you can replace in your own lifetime’,” says Pat McCabe of the Dine Nation in New Mexico, who led rituals during the event.